Video data is generally processed and transferred in the form of bit streams. Typical video compression coders and decoders (“CODECs”) gain much of their compression efficiency by forming a reference picture prediction of a picture to be encoded, and encoding the difference between the current picture and the prediction. The more closely that the prediction is correlated with the current picture, the fewer bits that are needed to compress that picture, thereby increasing the efficiency of the process. Thus, it is desirable for the best possible reference picture prediction to be formed.
In many video compression standards, including Moving Picture Experts Group (“MPEG”)-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4, a motion compensated version of a previous reference picture is used as a prediction for the current picture, and only the difference between the current picture and the prediction is coded. When a single picture prediction (“P” picture) is used, the reference picture is not scaled when the motion compensated prediction is formed. When bi-directional picture predictions (“B” pictures) are used, intermediate predictions are formed from two different pictures, and then the two intermediate predictions are averaged together, using equal weighting factors of (½, ½) for each, to form a single averaged prediction. In these MPEG standards, the two reference pictures are always one each from the forward direction and the backward direction for B pictures.